Handcuffing Incident Triggers Proposal To Evaluate Police

On July 2 Ocoee resident Dee Spears was kept handcuffed for more than an hour at the Ocoee Police Department after she was arrested for refusing to sign a speeding ticket.

That incident was the first of a series of police-related cases that drew City Manager Ted Ryan's attention to the 29-member force and spurred him to start a comment card system to evaluate police performance.

Orange County Judge Thomas Kirkland recently ordered Spears to pay the traffic fines with the provision that the infraction would not appear in her record. The judge previously had refused Spears' request to take a lie detector test.

Spears has said she was not driving 40 mph in a 25 mph zone, as charged by arresting Officer Chuck Seaver. She said that because of her objection, she refused to sign the ticket.

In a letter to Ryan, Police Chief William Brandt and The Times of Winter Garden, Spears said she was left in handcuffs while officers completed arrest forms. She also said she was not allowed to make a phone call to her employer despite repeated requests.

''I am a very dependable and respected person,'' Spears wrote. ''My employer became concerned when I didn't come to work or call in and came looking for me. She found my car still on the side of the road and locked. I really don't think that I should have been treated as a major criminal even if I had done what the officer charged.''

Brandt said officers were following procedures when they searched Spears and kept her in handcuffs. He said the only mistake was taking her to the Ocoee Police Department instead of the Orange County Jail, where she could have made a phone call.

Spears said that after sending the letter, she met with Brandt but ''he acted as if he didn't want to even to talk to me.'' His attitude, she said, contrasted with the approach of the city manager, who has apologized to her for the incident.

Last month Ryan also asked Brandt to report on four other complaints against his officers.

Among the complaints were:

-- A senior citizen claimed he was dropped off in a deserted rural area after asking an unidentified police officer to drive him to the hospital.

-- A mother, Barbara Devoe, says her son was kicked and given a ticket by an officer who was questioning the boy about the theft of a lawn mower.

-- Occius Dessilien said he was punched in the face by an Ocoee police officer while he was in a Winter Garden house that Ocoee and Winter Garden police and deputy sheriffs raided looking for a drug suspect.

-- An allegation that a former reserve officer is still working unofficially for the the department.

From February to July, four complaints dealing with the police have been filed either as lawsuits or insurance claims that may result in suits. There is another case pending in court from a July 1984 incident.

Of the four cases, three are for unlawful arrests and two for excessive force. The one in 1984 is for wrongful arrest.

''This is the largest amount of pending lawsuits that the city has had,'' said Ryan, adding that this week Brandt would provide him with the police records of all the cases.

''I want to see the reports and I want him to explain to me the particulars of each case,'' Ryan said. ''But I couldn't do more than that because this is pending litigation and I don't want to compromise the city's position.''